The Pen Addict 270/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	270
Title:	I Am A Lefty Over-Hooker
Release Date:	August 15th, 2017
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy Myke Hurley
Guests:	No guests this episode
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 270
Audio File:	Audio Episode 270
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 270
Length:	7272 min <br />1.2 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Myke Hurley: From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 270. Today's show is brought to you by Pen Chalet, Blue Apron, and Harry's. My name is Myke Hurley, I am joined by Mr. Brad Dowdy.

Brad Dowdy: Hello, Myke Hurley, from, again, another undisclosed American location.

Myke Hurley: I am in Memphis, Tennessee, right now, and I am currently inside of the RelayFM World Headquarters, which is Stephen's studio space. Slash Apple Museum. Slash Museum, yep, so I'm here. We actually did a little Q&A in this studio last night.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, cool, I thought I saw some links to that, but I didn't watch it yet.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, it's RelayFM's anniversary week. RelayFM turns three years old on the 18th of August, so we like to do a few special things during that week, including our membership, which I'm going to talk about in a moment. But we did a Q&A last night, which you may enjoy. It was me and Stephen together, and we recorded it inside the studio, so you can see some of Stephen's antique Macintosh collection behind us. But it is fun, and I recommend it. We had fun with it, and I think there's some interesting stuff in there if you're interested in what we do.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and since y'all had such a late night, we did not record at 10 o'clock this morning like my stupid calendar said, so that was all my fault. I apologize to our live listeners who were looking for a 10 a.m. show. That is completely my fault. And I actually had the time in the calendar correct, but I did not change the header, which says podcast 10 a.m., scheduled for 12. So I'm dumb.

Myke Hurley: We need to get into this a little bit now. Uh-oh. Is this cortex-ish? Hang on a second. Do you save the titles of your calendar events with the time in them?

Brad Dowdy: So for this particular thing I did, because it's a shared calendar with my wife and family, so just for the podcast, since it's Wednesday, every Wednesday at 10 a.m. in perpetuity, I just say podcast 10 a.m. so they don't have to think about it. And so when we change one, I just drag it over from Wednesday to Tuesday, and I always change the title because I always change the time, and I just didn't on this one.

Myke Hurley: Interesting.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I understand that's not a normal thing, and that's the only thing I do it for. I don't have times in any calendar entries other than that one particular one. So it's like perfectly clear to everybody.

Myke Hurley: That's the reason?

Brad Dowdy: Yes, yeah. I just need to change that, and that's my fault because I'm a dummy.

Backer Vlog

Myke Hurley: All right, so should we talk about, I promised an update on the backer vlog last episode. Yeah, it's good timing. I'm going to get lots to talk about on that. Yeah, my update is I completed it, and it's published. It's just a private YouTube video. If you are a backer, you should have got an email or something like that. It will be going out to you. It's also in the backer updates on Kickstarter.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, and I sent that out yesterday afternoon, I believe. Got a lot of good feedback on that. I haven't gone and checked. I don't know if anyone leaves comments on the private videos.

Myke Hurley: They do, and they have, and they've been really good so far, which makes me happy.

Brad Dowdy: I know, I got a few emails that were good.

Myke Hurley: It was tricky to put the vlog together from a videoing perspective. I wasn't sure what I should be showing and what I shouldn't be showing, and I kind of did it up towards more of the people than the pens, and I hope that people enjoyed that. I hope that people got something out of it. I wanted to kind of do my best to show what they're like, like what the pen shows are like.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and I think that's something we can focus more on in the future as well, because I got an email. It was a really good constructive criticism email that, you know, I love your pen show visits, but your focus has changed, and I want to know more about the show itself, and the vendors, and the new products. And I'm like, yeah, I get that, because I've gone, now I go to work pen shows instead of visit pen shows, right? So that content's a little bit different, but I think that's something I can, you know, think about and change in the future, and I thought you did, hopefully you did a good, people think you did a good job of capturing that, and I thought it was very cool.

Myke Hurley: Thank you very much.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, and so there are people who are wanting to know if they can get access to the video and to the Pen Addict podcast live recording video. If you are interested in doing that after the fact, you can email me, hello at penaddict.com, and we'll talk about the details on getting you access to that if you are interested. So I don't mind doing the video stuff after the fact, and I can just send like PayPal invoices or whatever. We can't do any Sapelos anymore. Those are done and gone.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, that's the thing, because there are people that come to the show later and they want to get the videos, and we try and accommodate where we can. So, you know, you can, Brad will work it out with you, and then any money can go in towards next year's fund, I guess. Or, I mean, we still got more this year, which we're going to talk about kind of at the end of the show today. Yeah, we might want to get that one rolling. Yeah, you're telling me. We keep talking about it. Yeah, I agree. At the end of last week's show, during last week's show, I mentioned that I was going to head over to Kinokunia. Oh, my God. Did I get it right? Yeah, pretty good there. Which is a very populous pen and bookstore in New York, because it was like a couple of blocks from my hotel. So I went there, and there was an abundance of stuff, like an overwhelming amount of pens in this place. I can see why people go mad for Kinokunia, because it is gel pen heaven. There was just absolutely every type of pen you would ever wish for. Now, I am not a gel pen person, so for me, I didn't really buy anything. I was just looking around. I bought a gift of a Colito, who were a bunch of different colors for someone. And then I ended up buying some blue Pilot M90 cartridges, like some blue Pilot cartridges for my M90. Sure. Because it was all they had. And they had an interesting fountain pen collection. They had some nice pilots, like they had some custom-made 23s and stuff like that in there, which I was really impressed with. I was like, well, I've actually got a pretty serious list of attention points. They had a pretty serious collection, but their fountain pen collection was really small and quite restricted. And they had some ink and stuff like that too, like Hiroshisuku. And then they had a bunch of washi tape stuff and a bunch of interesting notebooks. They had a larger collection of Moleskine than I was expecting, but also a large collection of Leuchtturm. So it was a cool experience to see a store like that, but it doesn't carry the stuff that I'm necessarily too interested in buying, nor would I have expected it to.

Brad Dowdy: Right, right. Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. That is interesting about the fountain pen setup, and it makes sense that it's all Pilot, because I'm sure they have a pretty big Pilot account with all the other things that they carry. Yeah, they had everything, man. Pencils and erasers.

Myke Hurley: They had like Preras. They had the whole shebang for the Pilot stuff. They had a couple of sailors, like what is the 1911s? But it was mostly Pilot stuff, and they had the whole gamut. They ran the whole gamut.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, and it's also, like you said, they had the Moleskines and Leuchtturms, but I know it's a huge Japanese notebook store too, and I know a lot of people. I know that's not your thing at all, but I know a lot of people will go there and just stock up on all kinds of weird notebooks. This was weird for me.

Myke Hurley: I reckon I was looking in the wrong place, because I didn't really come across any. I mean, I don't know where the Japanese notebooks were. Sure. It was really busy in there, I will say that. So I didn't look at everything. It was packed full of people, and I was waiting for maybe like 10 minutes to get somebody to give me some ink. Oh, wow. It was super hot that day, and I was kind of just like, I'm getting out of here. I might pop back though. I mean, I'm going to be in New York for like another two weeks, basically, after this. I love the chat room. They're already saying where it's at.

Brad Dowdy: It's on the back wall, Myke.

Myke Hurley: Back wall. All right.

Brad Dowdy: Like our chat room knows these things. It's amazing.

Myke Hurley: I might head back there. I might. I mean, I have notebooks. I've got notebooks for days now.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. And I know, like I would go in and maybe not buy many gel pens, but I guarantee you I'd buy some notebooks.

Myke Hurley: All right. I mentioned at the start of the show that it is kind of RelayFM's, and wait, is. I don't know why I keep saying kind of. Like 100% is RelayFM's third anniversary this week. Yes. Three days from the birthday. Yeah, I know. Wow. Man, this time three years ago, I don't think I was functioning very well as a human being. But what that means is that starting the beginning of this week, it's already begun, our RelayFM members bonus shows go out. So if you are a RelayFM member, you will already have a feed for our members, which includes a bunch of bonuses. If you become a RelayFM member, then you will get sent an email with an RSS feed and a link so you can go and subscribe in your favorite app of choice. Basically, throughout the month, you're going to get bonus episodes of all of your favorite shows, including this one. Our episode goes out later this week on August 17th, which we spoke about before. And it's me and Brad taking a real interesting, emotional, in-depth look at his favorite Joy Division songs. Honestly, it's one of the best things me and Brad have ever done together. So if you enjoy this show, it's a very different feel, right? Because we tend to be pretty happy on this show and Joy Division music by design is pretty sad. Sell it, Myke. It meant something to both of us and I think that it is, I think that it's a really, it's a really emotional thing and it's very interesting to hear Brad talk about all of his feelings about the music. So you can become a Relay.fm member by going to relay.fm slash membership and you can choose any show that you want to support or all the shows and you will get all of the same bonuses and benefits, including something that's new this year. Our amazing designer, Frank, has created desktop wallpapers of all of the Relay.fm shows. This will be in the email for new members and if you're an existing member, we sent out a newsletter this week which has a link to that in it as well. So go find out more. Go to relay.fm slash membership. We'd love it if you supported the Pen Addict, but you can support any show and you will get all of the same benefits and bonuses. And I want to say for anybody that has already signed up or anybody that's going to, thank you so much. Obviously, we are advertising supported, but your support helps us continue to do things and it gives us a base that we know the support is always there no matter what advertising we have. And that is a real, real great thing to know that we have that there so we can continue making the show easily and can continue making and doing interesting and weird stuff too. So we really appreciate your support.

Brad Dowdy: Well, congratulations to you and Stephen for three years and congratulations on the new site redesign launch. I know you've been putting a lot of hard work into that. So I just wanted to make sure you got credit for that.

Myke Hurley: We have a fresh coat of paint over at relay.fm, which is really nice. So you can do that.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, yep. So as great as you were talking about Frank's design work, which he's awesome. We all love Frank Forgotten Towel on Twitter. And do you think he could pull off a Rubik's Cube mosaic like our friend David, Mr. Fig Boot can? It's kind of incredible, right? I don't know anyone that could pull this off. I don't know.

Myke Hurley: He explained this to me and I still don't know how he did it.

Brad Dowdy: And he goes through it all in the intro to the video. And I'm just looking at this video and all the time-lapse stuff. The amount of time he committed to this project is insane. And that's why we love him, right? We love these people that go deep into like crazy stuff like this. It's so impressive. It's so cool. And congratulations, David, for getting this out. I know it was months worth of work to do this. And I don't know if I should spoil the ending of the video. No, we definitely shouldn't.

Myke Hurley: There's a surprise at the end. Basically, Dave, he put together this incredible video of using and solving Rubik's Cubes to create the logos of some of your favorite pen companies. Mm-hmm. And the Nock is in there too.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so like there's a big Nock logo in there. He, you know, he's so nice. He like asked, he's like, hey, I'm doing this project and it involves like 600 Rubik's Cubes and I want to make a Nock logo. Is that okay? I'm like, yeah, that's okay. But I appreciate him asking. But I'm like, yeah, that's awesome. So it's really good. Yeah, it's really, really good. So we have a fig boot level of items to get to here this week. But I know we need to talk about some other pens first, right?

Pen Chalet Products

Myke Hurley: Yeah, we most certainly do. And they come from our friends over at Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing roller balls, fountain pens, all of the ink cartridges that you're ever going to want, mechanical pencils. They have tons of carrying cases, pen holders. They have converters. They have everything that you're looking for from all of your favorite brands. And they couple all of this with fast and reliable customer service. Pen Chalet are always doing great specials. They do great discounts. They have prices, honestly, that you're not going to believe on some of their stuff. And they continue to do that at a rate which is almost baffling to me. They do free shipping on orders of over $50 in the US. They sell internationally with great shipping rates. And they have a 100% satisfaction guarantee for their high quality pens that they sell to you at low prices. Just go to penchalet.com. That's P-E-N-C-H-A-L-E-T.com. Click the podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password penaddict to get your hands on this week's special offer and to get the code that you need to save 10% on anything at Pen Chalet. This week's special offer is a great discount on a pen that me and you have spoken about in the past, which is the Monteverdi Tool Pen. So Pen Chalet, Ron A Pen Chalet is discounting the Monteverdi Tool Pen and Pencil 45% off, which is a really huge discount. Like, just a huge discount for what is ostensibly a really interesting and weird pen. So you should go and check that one out.

Brad Dowdy: It's a great pen and a great pencil. I need to add the pencil to my collection. I love the pen. It's just a unique pen. Everyone enjoys it when they see it. It's actually very useful with the ruler. I know Joke used the Field Notes ruler in my notebook and then sometimes used the Monteverdi One Touch ruler. And I got to tell you a secret. Well, you know this and I think a lot of listeners know this and this isn't one that's on Ron's sale, but it's available on Ron's site. The rollerball for the Monteverdi One Touch stylus takes fountain pen ink cartridges. So that thing will blow your mind. It's not part of this deal but if you're buying one of these you should get one of those as well. So here, I'm spending everyone's money.

Myke Hurley: And so you can get the Warpoint or Mechanical Pencil for 45% off or you can get the regular one for 10% off by using the code that you'll get when you go sign up. So discounts for all over at Pen Chalet. Go to penchalet.com click that podcast link at the top of the website and enter the password pen addict to get your hands on these amazing deals. Thank you so much to Pen Chalet for their continued support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: So we've had two topics that we've been holding on for like a month just because our schedule has been a little bit weird. And I have one confession to make. I didn't write down the requester's name of these two topics. I apologize. But I wrote down what the questions were. So do I get half credit or is that just a straight up fail?

Myke Hurley: Yeah, sure.

Fountain Pens

Brad Dowdy: The first one we held these off because we wanted to spend some time on them. The first one is unpopular fountain pen opinions. I don't know that I have super crazy strong unpopular opinions but I have a few things that you know and they may not even go against the grain but they're just kind of my personal things. You want me to read off my list here real quick? Yeah, go for your list and we'll talk about them. Yeah, we'll go one by one. So what the first one is I don't like non-Japanese medium and broad nibs. Steel or gold doesn't matter. No Pelican, no Aurora, no European, no Western brand medium or broad nibs. I never use that size. I don't enjoy the writing experience with those. They're too broad. They're too rounded and if I've ever purchased a pen with that style of nib it was purposefully to get ground down into something else. And yeah, I just don't like the way my handwriting looks with that size nib. Now I like big wet stub nibs and huge music nibs and things like that that put down a lot of ink but they have that more squared off line which I like which is why I can't really, you know, use medium and broad nibs. They just don't make my handwriting look good enough. So if it's a European medium it's a no bueno for Brad Doughty. Yep. Okay. That's what we're, you know, Lamy, Pelican, Aurora, anything like that.

Myke Hurley: It doesn't surprise me though because you are a man who likes the finer things in life, right? I do. As in the fine nibs. I was pretty proud of that one actually. And so yeah, that doesn't, I'm not surprised by that one but I can see that it's unpopular because I like mediums and broads and all sorts, right, from all over the world. I mean like the mediums that I use for most of my pens these days are Japanese mediums so they're on the finer side but they're still medium, right? I think you would agree with that, right? Like most of the mediums that I use, they're not, they're closer to fine but they're not fine.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I'd say for the most part I'd agree with that. They're kind of sitting in the middle

Myke Hurley: don't they really? Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: That's my max line width right there is like a Japanese medium until you get into a stub or a talic nib. So, the second one I put in for you and I guess for the listeners too, I don't like field notes for fountain pens.

Myke Hurley: Okay.

Brad Dowdy: I mean, I don't think that's a real stretch. I don't think that's necessarily unpopular but, you know, being ever the field notes shills that we are, Myke, I don't think they're perfect and I use a lot of fountain pens and therefore I don't use my fountain pens in my field notes so they don't get used as much as some other things.

Myke Hurley: I think that's a fair criticism. They're not, I mean, like if you use a ballpoint or a pencil or a roller ball you're going to get probably a better experience than if you use a fountain pen but in my daily usage like, you can very easily use fountain pens and they work fine but there are better, there's better paper for fountain pens than what field notes put in but I think you lose a lot that I don't want to lose by going to another brand.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So this last one I think is probably my most unpopular opinion and it's that I don't care for American vintage pens. I own a few of them. I own, you know, a Parker Vacumatic, a Parker 51, a couple of Schaefer Tuckaways. In general, I find them boring. In general, they all look the same. I'd rather go into Pelican or Kaweco going back to the German side over here, you know, I'd rather try some vintage Japanese Sailors or Platinums or Pilots. They're just more interesting and unique to me than American vintage pens be it, you know, Parker, Schaefer, Waterman, you know, maybe Todd, any of the old classics. I just, I think going to pen shows, you just see hundreds and hundreds of the same pen lined up next to each other. It's really difficult for a single one to stand out. I think that's why I gravitated to the Schaefer Tuckaway because it is different, it's small. But in general, I don't really have any use or need to have a bunch of American vintage fountain pens. I definitely have more, you know, Japanese and German vintage pens on my radar than American. Does that make sense?

Myke Hurley: I could not agree with you more. This is something that I don't really talk about very much either, but vintage pens just don't do it for me. Like, they just, they don't. I mean, every now and then I'll see somebody with a Schaefer or a Parker and the colors are interesting and weird. And the Schaefer's, like, especially, is it called the Lady Schaefer? Yeah. Well,

Brad Dowdy: there's a bunch. There's several different names. Yeah,

Myke Hurley: I mean, just that line, the Lady Schaefer line, they tend to be more interesting to me because they're more delicate, they're more intricate, right? Well, they're more colorful, they're more unique. But that whole thing is more interesting. But every now and then I'm like, I'm at a pen show, right? And somebody is like, oh, this is what I bought today. And they hand me a pen that's all black, right? With a gold clip on it. And I don't understand it. Yeah. And it's like, this is this vintage blah, blah, blah that I bought. And like, I take off and then I uncap it and I look at the nib and I'm like, I can't see what you see. Right? Like, because it just, it's an old pen that to me just looks so boring and I'm like, I don't know why you bought this. But that's, but I find that interesting, right? Because that person is really excited about that pen and that's awesome for them. And that's kind of one of the great things about our hobby is that there are so many different things that you can enjoy. But like, I look at the stuff and I'm like, I don't, I don't know why you bought this. I can't get it, right? And that's an interesting thing to me because, you know, look at something like the M90 that it could be classed as a vintage pen and I think it's one of the most beautiful pens I've ever owned.

Myke Hurley: So there are things there but there is just so much of the vintage pen market that I can't get my head around.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so like, I have the Parker Vacumatic Golden Web that you bought me and I absolutely adore that pen. It's one of my favorite pens. I don't need any more of them. You know, I have a regular striped Parker Vacumatic. You go to a table you see 200 of them. I don't need one of each size and each color and each cap. I'd rather go buy my fifth vintage vanishing point. It's just me. It's just, you know, these are personal opinions, personal taste things and, you know, we were asked, you know, what are our unpopular opinions, you know, in this market and, you know, so that's just kind of something I've noticed and I think it's a little bit of burnout of seeing them all the time. Yeah. Like you see hundreds of the same pen all the time so it makes you not pick one up and grab it and kind of figure out what's going on, what makes this pen special even though they're certainly special and people love them. How do I find that out for me and, you know, why do I need 10 of them? Because that's kind of where I'm at, right? All right, so what do you have on your list? So I love your first one. It's very much in line with my first one.

Myke Hurley: In general, I do not like fine, extra fine or architect grinds. I find architect grinds to be unusable for my writing style because I am a lefty overhooker. So I just don't work. very frequently someone will go check out this amazing architect grind and I put the pen to the paper and I can't make any ink come out. It's just my, it's just the way that I write means that those types of grinds just don't work for me. And just in general, I don't like fine or extra fine. Like, I find, I don't really like to kind of straddle the line between writing on the page and cutting through it, right? And I feel like so many, especially extra fines, like I don't even, I can't understand why people want to use them. Like, I like to see the ink on the page, right? Like, I like to see a big effect when I use a fountain pen. I like the feeling of something grand and bold and that's why mediums and broads and stub nibs and music nibs all work for me because that's what I want, you know? I want there to be a big effect left on the page when I'm done with it. And just for me, fines and extra fines don't give that and I also most of the time find them uncomfortable.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, that makes sense. You know, it's definitely a writing style thing and a visual thing. For me, I get the satisfaction of seeing a lot of ink and a stub nib, but I like how my handwriting looks in an extra fine nib and it's because we have different styles, right? That's why there's so many options out there. There's more than one fountain pen in the world. There's something for all of us, Myke, but I can understand that where you're coming from.

Myke Hurley: So, remind me, Brad, your Aurora Optima, which is one of your very favorite pens, which went back to the Shoptima, if I remember correctly. Yes. What nib is in that? Well, extra fine, of course. I hate that pen. So, I tried Brad's Aurora Optima for the first time in DC, which, by the way, every time I've been talking about DC over the last week, I keep calling it Atlanta. Just like it, just in my mind, it's Atlanta, because that's where the pen show is. Right, that's where the pen show is. That's what I do. Yep. Which I just, I found that to be really funny. I just keep calling it Atlanta, and Stephen's like, what are you, what, no, you're in DC. Oh, yeah. I used Brad's Aurora, and I, I really hated it. Like, honestly, Brad, I couldn't even get ink to come out.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, like, he legitimately, like, ew, like, there was bad faces and all kinds of stuff. Did not,

Myke Hurley: like, it was a real kind of visceral reaction for me. It was not a pen I enjoyed.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I get it. Their nibs are very firm, very fine, and very dry, and if I'm looking for qualities I like in a fountain pen, they're going to be very firm, very dry, and very fine, so it makes sense that you do not like that pen, and my Nebulosa also has an extra fine nib in it, and you didn't like that either, because they, they wrote very, pretty much identically, right? I mean, for all intents and purposes, they were the same pen, didn't matter.

Myke Hurley: Yep, yeah, just not, not a fan of those.

Brad Dowdy: Yep, understand, fair, tight. It's your opinion, it doesn't mean it's right, but it's your opinion. Mm-hmm,

Myke Hurley: and there aren't popular ones, is what we're saying.

Brad Dowdy: I agree with you, I mean, I agree where you're coming from.

Vanishing Point Nibs

Myke Hurley: The next one, I think basically everybody knows, I'm actually going to bundle this in, I'm going to make this a twofer, I find vanishing point nibs to be uncomfortable, so pens, vanishing point pens to be uncomfortable because of the clip, and then I'm just going to roll into that, that I really don't like the Visconti clips, so I know that those are two things, like the clips on those pens, a lot of people like them, I really don't like them for different reasons, but they don't work for me.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so the vanishing point clip is a usability thing, you know, it works for someone or it doesn't, so therefore they like it or they dislike it. Visconti is a visual thing, and there is a huge love-hate relationship with that clip, I don't think there's a lot of middle ground, although I kind of think I fall in the middle ground, like it doesn't bother me, it's not my favorite thing in the world, it doesn't bother me, some people absolutely hate that clip, and I get it, it's big and gaudy.

Myke Hurley: And I also just wanted to mention the Omos pattern branding, so what they put around the bands on the pens, what is the official name for that, is there a real name for that, they put these like metal bands that go around the caps and stuff.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, so they're cap bands, I don't know what the etching or the pattern in it is called, but I think it looks great, that's not something you like.

Myke Hurley: I really don't like it, because it's so abstract, in a way that is not appealing to me. To keep you up at night? Not really, I find it concerning, really, that you're making fun of me here, because I was trying to help you through yours, so I hope that everybody's taking note of the fact that when Brad was giving his opinions, I was trying to make it better, but for some reason he's deciding to make mine worse. I don't like the Omos branding, it doesn't make any sense to me, like this kind of Roman style. Yes, so the chat

Brad Dowdy: room says it's called the Greek key, I have heard of that in the past, so it's that kind of squared like snake pattern of angles, I don't know how to talk about it, we'll find a picture in the show notes, it's easy, it's very common, I love, I think it looks fantastic.

Brad Dowdy: But yeah, I understand, I mean, hey, that's a pretty unpopular one, that's one I haven't heard before. Yeah,

Myke Hurley: because a lot of people like Omos, like a lot, I feel like this is probably going to be similar to when I told people that I leave my pens ink for a long period of time, I feel like it's going to be, it's going to be akin to that

Brad Dowdy: one. Speaking of which, have you seen our good friend, well-appointed desk Instagram feed recently? Maybe?

Myke Hurley: Maybe? I don't know anymore because Instagram does that thing.

Brad Dowdy: That's true, you would know if you saw what I'm talking about, so don't go look. So, yeah, we'll save that until after the show, but you will never fly with a fountain pen again. Oh,

Myke Hurley: I have seen that, yes, because she tagged me in it. Yeah, so, Anna, on her way home, she kind of wanted me to know, but didn't want me to know. It looks like effectively every single one of her pens explored. It's just like 30. That's not good. So, I will say for this one, Anna, I feel terrible, I'm sorry this happened to you, I feel like maybe this was more likely because this seemed like vintage pens, maybe it's more likely, I don't know, but this hasn't changed anything to me because I'm still not doing it. I'm flying with one or two inked at a time now. In a Ziploc bag inside of a Sinclair.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I think I had eight back and forth to D.C. this year, just in a brass towel, no extra baggie and no issues, so I don't know what to tell you. I do know how to feed you though, Myke. Oh, yeah. And that's with our good friends at Blue Apron.

Myke Hurley: look at you. You're just really setting them up for me today.

Brad Dowdy: Hey, I may not be on time,

Myke Hurley: but I can segue with the best. Today's show is brought to you by the number one recipe delivery service, the freshest ingredients, that is Blue Apron. They're on a mission to make incredible home cooking accessible to everyone whilst also supporting a more sustainable food system. They set the highest standards for their ingredients whilst building a community of home chefs. Let me tell you how they do those two things. So with their ingredients, they make sure that they go out to sustainable partners. They work with companies that have great rules and regulations in place to make sure that the standards of the ingredients that they're shipping to you are of the highest quality. All of those ingredients come with a freshness guarantee. Every ingredient will arrive ready to cook or they'll make it right. They also ship you just the exact amount of ingredient that you need for each recipe. They reduce food waste and it also makes it easier for you to cook because you know you've got this thing, this thing goes in this recipe. It's easier that way to be able to follow the recipes. Those recipes is how they are building their home chef community because they make it so simple. All of the recipes come with a step by step card that you can follow. So you can really easily go through and cook what you want to cook in 40 minutes or less. For less than $10 a meal, Blue Apron will deliver these seasonal recipes to you. Right now you'll be able to cook things like sautéed shrimp and green beans with globed tomatoes, spinach and also pasta. basil pesto chicken with summer vegetable panzanella or even whole grain pasta and summer vegetables with heirloom tomato caprese salad. I will tell you that whilst I have been traveling I have not been cooking my meals at home and it has made a real effect to me because I love to be able to cook now and this is the type of thing this is the type of feeling that you're going to get when you are sent these Blue Apron meals because you'll be cooking them yourself at home and that is a real great thing. Home cooking once you really get into it is a fantastic thing to be able to do because you are putting together your own food, you're enjoying it, it's really fantastic and this is what you can get with Blue Apron. There's no weekly commitment, you get deliveries when you want them. You can check out this week's menu and get three meals for free for first purchase including free shipping just by going to blueapron.com slash penaddict. You will love how good it feels and tastes to create incredible home cooked meals at Blue Apron. So get started today by going to blueapron.com slash penaddict. We'd like to thank Blue Apron for their support of this show. Blue Apron, a better way to cook.

Made in USA

Brad Dowdy: So our second holdover topic, the question was how important is Made in the USA to you? You know, like when you see brands, products, anything made in the USA, how important is that to you and what does it mean to you? And I apologize again, I forgot to write down the names of the listeners who asked these questions, but thank you for sending them in. So the Made in the USA thing to me is kind of a bonus feature, right? It's more about the people behind the products, it's more about is it a good design than necessarily where it's specifically manufactured. I've said all along that good products are made all over the world. It's, you know, but the Made in the USA thing, okay, it's a nice thing in the plus column, but I don't have to have that when I'm making a purchase. You know, it's not a mandatory thing. I'm more concerned about the people behind the company and the designs they make than where the product's made. Now, NOC presents itself as a Made in the USA brand, and that's something we set up purposefully because we wanted to try and do this. You know, it would be a lot easier and cheaper for us to go overseas to make our cases and to make our paper products, and there's nothing wrong with doing that, but we set it up in the beginning to try to do it here. So far, we've been able to succeed doing that. It's not without roadblocks and hassles and extra money, but we're able to do it. I'm very proud of that fact, you know, to keep, you know, our manufacturing local for NOC, and that's not going to change. You know, that's something we very much believe in. Jeff told me years ago that if we ever outsourced this brand overseas, he would quit, and that doesn't mean that Jeff's not for things not made in the USA. It means that for NOC, it's not the right solution for us. You know, we're fans of products made all over the world. We're consumers of all these things, but for NOC, that's what we try to do. It's specific to our brand. So, but on a consumer perspective, it doesn't really affect me or it affects me very minimally. I enjoy seeing it, but it's not going to necessarily drive my buying decision. So, it's kind of a two-sided answer for me because I have it as a consumer and I also have it as a business person. So, what do you think about this? I know we've talked about this in the past and we definitely kind of, we're on the same page, I think. So,

Myke Hurley: for me,

Myke Hurley: made in the USA, so bear with me here, right? Bear with me here. Made in the USA, I kind of translate in my mind to say made by people who really care about the end result. So, when I hear that, it is an indication to me that love and care went into it, like went into it and that the producer of the product is willing to spend more money to get a better result or is willing to make less profit to get a better result. Now, this is not the only indicator of this because I buy things that don't have that on there but are made by people that do care about their end result. I buy products from companies that are based in the USA who make their stuff overseas but I know I'm getting a good end result and there are many different things that can lead to that. It can be reputation, it can be just like a way that somebody tells a story, like I believe that design is important but made in the USA is one of these indicators. For small manufacturers, for me, if they say that they're made in the USA, it's a good sign but it's not the only sign. But I also don't have any patriotism so I don't care that it's made in the USA. If a German company says made in Germany, it's the exact same thing for me. If a UK company says made in the UK, it's the same thing. I understand what that means and what that means is we're trying to make the best thing we can. But as I say, that is not the only thing that I look for and it's not the only thing that I think telegraphs this but it is for me a good sign.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, I agree. I agree. So it's kind of a hard topic to discuss. It's one of those you know it when you see it kind of things. You know whether a company is using that in a good fashion or if they're just trying to do or be something they're not. And there's no one in this community that does that. They're all really great American makers that stand behind the made in the USA manufacturing. So it's nice to see that but is it necessarily going to determine? Is it like the primary factor in me making a person? It's never going to be. So I just want a good product.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, definitely.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So I added something before we get into our STPA that I wanted to discuss because I'm in a weird place with what I have currently inked Myke. And every now and then we do this. You know, people want to know what are we using? What's our favorite products right now? And since I came home from the DC Pen Show, I have cleaned every fountain pen I own except for two. I have two fountain pens inked up right now. I actually have no desire to ink up any fountain pens. And I'm kind of happy with where I'm at right now. I don't know how like the desk pictures I put on Instagram, you know, having a clean desk. I don't know how long that's going to last. I don't know how long having two pens inked up is going to last. But I'm kind of feeling healthy about the whole situation right now. I don't feel like I'm in some obscene inked up place where I have 15 pens going and none getting used. I have two that I'm using a lot. And one of them is the Pelican M205 with a steel extra fine nib. And I have it inked up with Pelican blue black ink. And I wanted to test this pen out as just like a workhorse daily carry pen. And right now it's doing great. I mentioned that the Aurora Duo cart back in that review a month or two ago. It clicked with me. That pen seems like it would be a good everyday carry pen. But there's a couple issues with it. And the Pelican M205 solved those issues. So why don't I use that as an everyday carry fountain pen? And I think it's great. I thoroughly enjoy using this pen. I'm using it for show notes today. And I like it. And I think I'm just going to keep it inked up all the time. It's just a good all-around workhorse pen that I can throw in a pocket and leave the house and do anything.

Myke Hurley: And this is the Duo cart, right?

Brad Dowdy: No, no, no. This is the Pelican M205. Ah, yeah, sorry,

Myke Hurley: I got lost there. The Duo

Brad Dowdy: card made me think, made me want something more, and then I realized, wait a minute, I have that something more in a cheaper pen. Yeah, because we

Myke Hurley: were going to follow up on this, right, when we spoke about these pens. So you feel that this is giving you what you really are looking for?

Brad Dowdy: So far, yeah, and I've beat it around pretty good. I've taken it to my son's baseball games and written some notes and banged down my, I keep my leather fodder stack with this and some note cards in it, and if the umpire makes a bad call and I'll slam the thing down on my leg or on my chair, and then it'll hit me, it's like, oh, I had my fountain pen in there, man, ink's going to be everywhere, but not a drop. This pen is awesome. So, and it's in a weird place in the market, it's a weird price for what you get, but in the end, what you really get is a pen that can do anything, anywhere, anytime, super durable pen, love it. The only other pen I have, fountain pen I have inked, is my pen addict model, Franklin Kristoff, which I love, I love that pen shape and color, obviously, and this one especially because I put that Sig Flex nib in it, which I enjoy writing with, it's absolutely not a Flex, don't at me, it's not a Flex, but it's a wonderful nib to write with, it's very bouncy and springy and enjoyable writing experience, and I have that inked up with, of course, a very bright orange ink, and that's the Sailor Ken Mokuse, which is, you know, close to apricot and things like that, so I put away all my other fountain pens that I cleaned up, put them in there, you know, cigar box trays on my desk, they're nice displays, they're all full, I was like, ooh, look how pretty all these are, and I don't want to ink up a single one, just because I'm happy with what I have right now, and don't need more pens inked up, now I'm going to San Francisco pretty soon, it's probably going to change, and, you know, I have pens to review, so it's definitely going to change, but for my stuff, the things that I use, I've got two fountain pens inked up, and I'm pretty happy with that, so I don't know where, I'm in a weird headspace right now, Myke, is it normal? Am I okay?

Myke Hurley: I think you're okay. You may be like in pen show fatigue mode,

Brad Dowdy: so. I honestly think that's it, because I've been carrying like loads of pens inked up from show to show to show, you know, at least like once a month, so I don't trade them out very often, but those aren't the only pens I'm using, right? You know, I carry my pen type B with me all the time, which has the high-tech C refill, and then I'm carrying my shown design Lisa Frank pen, like I use those all the time.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: But fountain pen wise, I have two pens inked up, and I'm pretty good with that.

Myke Hurley: It's a weird place to be.

Myke Hurley: So I'm also in a different place just because I'm in a different place. I have less inked up than usual, like I'm carrying around with me pens that are empty, which is not a thing that I do, right? But I don't, like for example, my Canalea Maui Makai, that won't be inked until I get home again because I don't have the ink that I want to put in that,

Brad Dowdy: right? And that's a pen that requires the ink you want in it. You don't just accept whatever you have on hand.

Myke Hurley: It has to have Robo Osterfire and Ice, like that's what that pen has to have in it because I have to put a blue ink in the pen that's got all the blue accents, like there's no way I'm going to do it. Because plus as well, like I don't, I don't need that pen, right? Like it's got a 1.1 stub on it. Like this is not a pen that I use every day for regular notes. But plus what I'm using right now, like one of the pens that I have inked that is, that kind of is taking its place for the moment, is the Haleakal Silhouette, which has Robo Oster Yellow Sunset in it, which is a perfect pairing. And I have like a, I think I have a broad on this. Yeah, I have a broad rose gold nib. So like that's doing the job, right? Like it's doing the, like my little highlights and stuff like that that I take with it or my fun notes or my scribbles and stuff. I'm using that pen for that and it's doing a great job. And then for my daily, what I'm taking my notes with today, my daily user right here is my, my second Pilot M90 that I acquired from Brad Downey, which, Mr. Brad Downey, yeah, that, that, that guy, Mr. Brad Downey. And I, I found some, as I mentioned earlier, some blue Pilot Namiki cartridges. Let me tell you, this, you know, maybe it's because I haven't used it in a while, but this one feels even nicer to use. Like, God, I love this pen so much. It might have just been because I've taken a few days away from it using other stuff. I also have with me my Sailor Pro Gear with Roshisuku Fuyugaki that came over inked. It will go home inked, you know, it's, that's just, I gotta have that pen. And also my shown design, what I'm referring to as my Dexter pen, which is like the silver pen with the red splats all over it, which has a red Fisher space pen refill in it. So that's what I have inked. up right now and that's, I feel like that's a pretty good, pretty good collection for me. Yeah, you've got it

Brad Dowdy: covered right there. I like it. So yeah, I, I don't know like that I want to have more things inked up right now unless there's a very, very good use case. Like my, my two fountain pens work together, my other pens work together. I'm mostly using the, the traveler's notebook set up in, you know, my seed case that is coming soon to a store near you at knockco.com.

Myke Hurley: Knock.co, knock.co is a

Knock.co Domain

Brad Dowdy: better URL, man. Knock.co, it is. Do you remember the story about how that came about? You want a quick sidebar?

Myke Hurley: I don't remember, but go for it.

Brad Dowdy: It's very short. So we had, we'd launched the site, knockco.com, and we had a customer that said, hey, I saw knock.co was available and I bought it for you. Tell me your information and we'll get this transferred over. I was like, why didn't I, number one, why didn't I think of that first? And number two, you're an amazing person.

Myke Hurley: Yeah. Cause that's like a, oh, I just bought this and it's going to cost you, you know? Yep. Wow. That's fantastic.

Brad Dowdy: Yes. Yeah. So I didn't know if you remembered that that was years and years ago, but it's wonderful. Love it. So thank you. I, I know who you are. I won't, uh, I actually hadn't heard from him in a while, but, uh, I'll reach out. So anyway, onto some ask TPA. You ready to, uh, get into this a little bit? We have a, I'm ready to answer these TPAs. A slew. And all, I, I love all of our questions equally, but I especially love the first one that I put in the list today. So just, you know,

Brad Dowdy: one gets to me because Logan is starting a through hike of the Appalachian trail. And for those of you who aren't familiar, this is a life-changing deal. This is, I think, 2000 plus miles hike from Georgia to Maine or reverse. You can do it the, the other direction. People do it both ways. And it's takes a lot of people months, you know, it's like six months, to do this. It's a personal journey. It's a very important thing that people do. And Logan says, hey, I'm doing this. And I got the notebook I want to take, but I want to take a fountain pen. Can I

Myke Hurley: give a, can I give a little sidebar on this? Yeah. So a friend of mine did this, David Smith, right? Okay. Yeah, yeah, underscore, we met him. Yeah. And I recommended for him the expedition edition field notes. Sure. And I believe a Fisher space pen was what I told him to go with. And on his walk, on his hike, it rained a lot. so it ended up that this was the perfect thing for him because he was able to write with this stuff and it not get destroyed. So just wanted to mention that as a thing to consider that there is a possibility, right, that you're going to go on this and it's just going to be a nightmare weather-wise. Yeah. So maybe having something that's all weather is a good thing. So I just wanted to mention those two things.

Brad Dowdy: I couldn't agree more. And that was the first, I started reading this and I was like, well, it's got to be a Fisher Space pen of some sort, you know, like in the county comm barrel and then one of the, you know, waterproof notebooks, but that's not what he wants. So he actually has in here says it needs to last for five months and 2,189 miles. So he's doing the whole thing. Man, I really

Myke Hurley: don't know if a fountain pen is the right thing for this.

Brad Dowdy: Oh, I know, I know. And maybe it's the backup, but he's committed to this.

Brad Dowdy: What I think he should do, and honestly, because, you know, your pack weight is very, very important, anything you carry in addition to your bare necessities is, you know, can hurt you in the long run. I think the Kaweco Sport with Kaweco cartridges is the fountain pen you want to take. Yeah. Yes, that's a really good one. It can take a beating and it's going to keep on working and it's air light. The cartridges are small. I don't know how many cartridges you would need. It would be kind of a lot, I would imagine.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, take as many as you can comfortably fit. And luckily, Kaweco Sport cartridges are tiny and they come in tiny boxes. So you could take a big handful of those and you'd probably be good to go.

Brad Dowdy: Yep. So I think that's my recommendation. I'm opening to listener recommendations. I'd love to hear from other through hikers of the AT. You know, I imagine most of you are taking, you know, right in the reins and fishers and things like that or pencils because that would be a great choice as well. But if you have used something out of the ordinary, like a fountain pen on the trail, I would love to hear. So I just

Myke Hurley: checked and underscore took David underscore David Smith took a retro 51. I think I recommended a Fisher Space pen as well, but he had a retro 51 because he loves that pen and the expedition edition and he sent me pictures of his notebook covered in rain and he was fine. So I don't know, take what you want to take, right? But if you want to take notes, also have backups that are all

Brad Dowdy: weather for

Myke Hurley: something like

Brad Dowdy: this. So Tony in the chat room had a good recommendation, a platinum preppy with the platinum carbon ink cartridges because those cartridges are waterproof and the pen's just as light as the Kaweco sports. I think that's a great choice as well. Yeah, so anyway, Logan, we want to hear from you. Send me a note from the trail. When you go off trail for your town days, I want to hear from you. Shoot us a postcard. Yeah, I really want to

Myke Hurley: know how this goes, especially with the fountain pen and whatever you end up choosing. But I really, I want to endorse Brad's pick because the Kaweco is tiny, it's pocketable and it's light. Like, you know, I really think that it is a good, a really good option for something like this.

Pen Related Stationery

Brad Dowdy: So we're going to get back into more pen related and stationary as TPAs, but I had a public question on Twitter where I asked the crowd for some answers and I thought this would be a good place to ask to share those answers. So the WF Cupcake Girl, Sandra, wants to know, what podcast did your kids decide to add to the drive to and from school? So I reached out on Twitter because I have my list of podcasts that I listen to. It's all stuff that they don't want to listen to, like baseball and Game of Thrones and stuff like that. So I was trying to, and then I had like 99% invisible on and they were talking about the invention of stethoscopes and both of my kids were fascinated. They would not shut up asking me questions and it was amazing. It was the good stuff. It's the stuff you want your kids to just kind of latch onto. So that got me thinking. I went to Twitter and said, hey, what other podcasts can I try for the kids? And the list that I picked is let off Myke, I'm sorry to say, with ungeniused. Don't be sorry to say that. So Stephen actually said ungeniused. He replied and I was like, yeah, that's probably good. And then I put on the bat bomb episode.

Myke Hurley: Yeah.

Brad Dowdy: And they just want to know what's going on. They just want some more ungenius. So there you go. Props to you and your co-host. They are all about some ungenius. Plus it helped that they were familiar with your voice so they kind of knew, oh, that's my friend Myke talking on there. But they love the content mostly. So that was hilarious. The other ones I've picked so far, we haven't listened to all of them yet, but we did Side Door, The Illusionist, Containers, which they don't like, but I'm thoroughly enjoying that one. That's a small eight part like docuseries kind of thing about the shipping industry. I'm loving that. Invisibilia, Song Exploder, which is a traditional favorite of mine, and 99% Invisible. So that's the list. That's what we're going with so far. But right now they're big fans of Ungenius and all the stationery shows, which I want to mention, you know, Erasable and RSVP. They love listening to those. They love the Pen Addict podcast, of course. And there's a new podcast on the scene called The Nib Section, and it's really, really good. So they just dropped their second episode. It's a group out of Australia, I believe, and I apologize, I don't have their names in front of me. I'm not looking at it. But they do a great job, and I haven't listened to the second episode yet, but I thoroughly enjoyed the first one. So there you go. So I'm going to

Myke Hurley: make sure that all of those are in the show notes. I'm furiously adding them to the notes as we speak.

Brad Dowdy: I see you typing. Thank you for doing that. I should have put them all in there. But that's not it, Myke. We have more to get to today. We have a lot of content today. Let's knock out some Ask TPA once we hear from our good friends at Harry's.

Myke Hurley: Harry's, they are all about giving you a great shave at a fair price, and that's exactly why over 3 million people switched to Harry's. We were in a Walmart the other day, Brad, and it was fun to see the little Harry's stand that they have there. Harry's are all about making this stuff easier for people, but you should be buying them online because it's so easy, right? It's just so simple to buy this stuff online, plus you can get all great discounts, you can get all great trials, which we'll talk about in a minute. But Harry's founders, Jeff and Andy, decided to create their company because they were fed up with overpriced razors. They bought a German factory of 100 years of blade-making experience to make their fantastic five-blade razor. They want to sell it directly to you over the internet, and by owning that factory, they can ensure the highest quality for their blades, which is why they are happy to give a 100% quality guarantee on their product. Harry's is so confident you're going to love their blades, they want to give you their trial set for free. You just need to cover shipping. This set includes a weighted ergonomic razor handle, five precision engineered blades of a lubricating strip and trimmer blade, their rich lathering shave gel, and a travel blade cover. This is a $13 value for you to try out for free. Now, Brad, I know that you have endless great things to say about your Harry's products.

Brad Dowdy: You know, it's not the products, it's the results, Myke, and the results is my skin looks fantastic. I look good, I smell good, and for me, that's a challenge, looking good and smelling good. You've met me, and Harry's makes me look good and smell good all the time because their products are fantastic. That's all I use, you know, I mean, it's all I use for years because it's that good. I don't need anything because there's nothing better than Harry's.

Myke Hurley: Stop messing around. Go get started today and get a better shave with Harry's by claiming your free trial offer. Just go to harrys.com slash penaddict right now and get started. That's harrys.com slash penaddict. All you need to do is cover the shipping cost. Thank you so much to Harry's for their support of this show and RelayFM.

Brad Dowdy: Myke, do you have any more information on the Lamy Aeon or is it Aeon? I'm gonna go with Aeon. This is assistive tech on Twitter wants to know.

Myke Hurley: I mean, I had no information and then I went and found out what it was all about and it looks like an interesting little pen.

Brad Dowdy: So that's the original information. We still don't have additional information. The original information is that this pen is coming from Lamy, I think in the fall. It's a brand new line, right? It's a new line. Looks like it's probably going to be mid-priced, like above the, you know, like in the studio steel nib range. I'm just guessing I don't have MSRPs on these and they don't list them. They look cool. It's like the little brother to the Lamy 2000 kind of thing going on here, especially with the black one. So, interesting, but Lamy, you know, there's a limit to interesting that they can do with their aesthetic. It doesn't mean it's not good. It doesn't mean I don't like it. But, it's another Lamy. It's not blowing my mind, but it doesn't look bad either. So, but I don't have any more information. Coming soon, maybe, because who knows what Lamy is doing these days.

Brad Dowdy: All right, Capital Y1, how do Pelican M400 and 600 compare size-wise to the Sailor offerings? You know, I should have measured these up before I walked in here. The 400 is the same size as the 200 series, and both of those, I believe, are smaller and lighter. than the Progear Slims from Sailor. The 600 is probably a little bit bigger than the Progear Slims, but smaller than the Progear Standard. So, they're both kind of intermediary to their size ranges. I think the, they do kind of feel the same. They're both not air light, but they are light pins. I think the M600 series from Pelican and the Progear Standard series are my two favorites because they're a really good size. They're that good medium size, medium weight fountain pen, and both of them have fantastic nibs. So, that's generally what I use. So, I, but I actually use the Pelican 400 and 200 series more than I use the Sailor Slims, it seems like. But, they're all good. But they're, they're just a little bit smaller, I think, than their comparable Sailor pins. So, Badly Written wants to know, I've narrowed my next pin purchase down to the Aurora Duo Cart or Pilot E95. Any thoughts? I had to think about this one, but only for a second. I think it's definitely the Pilot E95. Just based on design. Well, I think it's the nib. It's 100% the nib. The nib on the Pilot E95 is gold, and it's amazing. You know, gold versus steel shouldn't be the primary difference necessarily why you purchase a pin. I just think in this case, the Pilot Gold nib is superior than the Aurora Duo Cart steel nib. I like the barrel better, I like the shape better, it's more pocketable. I think it's the E95. Not quite in a landslide, but in a pretty good, pretty good victory here.

Brad Dowdy: So, Nick Piddick wants to know, do you wash your pen as soon as they are empty, or do you wait to have a bunch and make a washing party? I love that washing party. Yeah,

Myke Hurley: I tend to clean out in batches, like not everything, but if I'm going to clean one pen, I want to clean more than one because it's like,

Myke Hurley: it's a whole thing, right? You have to go through a whole thing, so I like to clean out multiple.

Brad Dowdy: So, I like to clean out multiple as well, but if I empty a pen, I am not going to leave it sitting around dry. I will wash it immediately. I don't like dry or little to no ink sitting in a pen until I get to it. So, if I have a little bit of ink left in a pen and I'm ready to clean it out, which a lot of the pens I just cleaned out last weekend still had some ink left in them, so I just dump that ink, clean them out, and be done with it. If I empty a pen from writing with it, it will get cleaned that day or the next day because I don't want dried up ink sitting in a pen.

Brad Dowdy: Alright, now we have some people in this chat room that are coming up in this list here. So, Hot Couple Loving says, I've read that you can put lubricated ink into a piston filler that has become hard to work. Does that work as well as silicone grease? How exactly does a lubricated ink work? This is an awesome question and I've never heard of anyone recommending that. It makes logical sense. I don't know that the lubrication is enough to make any difference other than maybe a minimal difference. In a piston filler, the only time I've had a piston mechanism dry out, I've used silicone grease and it goes back to normal perfectly. And that's kind of all I know. I'll see if anyone has any more information on this. I don't know that it's going to help that much because the silicone grease is just such a different compound and it's going to work and last longer that it may just be like putting a band-aid on the problem if you're trying to get it solved by just using a lubricated ink because they're not that lubricated. It's just relative to other inks that might be drier. It's not going to really adjust the stickiness of your piston filler, I don't think.

Brad Dowdy: Sound good, Myke? You approve?

Myke Hurley: Makes sense to me. Just busted on you. I don't have anything else to say.

Brad Dowdy: So the poor penman wants to know, what will it take to get iMike to the LA pen show and do you think Nock will have your own table next year? So I'm going to answer this for you, Myke. It's going to take a date change to get iMike to the LA When is LA? February.

Myke Hurley: Well, I mean, it's not happening well, I don't expect it's going to happen next year. February is not a bad time for me.

Brad Dowdy: No, but it's a bad time for us doing a Kickstarter.

Myke Hurley: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It would have to be like,

Kickstarter Timing

Brad Dowdy: so, okay, so here's the thing. As part of the pen addict Kickstarter, it'd be really hard for us to do LA.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, because we would, I mean, if we did a three day again, if there is no, we don't know what we're going to do yet for next year. We really don't know. We have not decided because we're not even done with this year. We've not even started thinking about it.

Myke Hurley: I'm very confident we will do multiple dates and one of them will be Atlanta because it worked so well this time. If we ended up doing more than two, maybe we could do it and wrap it all the way around again, but it is a pretty long way away. And I don't know. I feel like I would maybe be more inclined to do San Francisco first because I've heard so many great things about that show, but we have not even decided what we're going to do next year.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And like I said, it's timing. That's the biggest challenge for LA. Like it's fine for me. Like yes, I might bring Nock there next year. If not, I might go work for Van Ness there. Like that timing for me personally is fine, but for us to do pen addict-y type stuff for that, it will be a challenge.

Myke Hurley: So some people in the chat room are saying about the Chicago pen show, I can pretty much guarantee that will not be happening because it's two weeks after Atlanta.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah, you'd have to stay here and extend your trip like you're doing right now, but you have so much other work related stuff you're handling.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, I extended this trip out for a month because there were like three different things to do. Like all I would be doing in the middle of the two pen shows for like two weeks is just waiting for the next one, which doesn't, that's not enough to stay away for three or four weeks. But we are doing something in Chicago and we did say we talk about this and this is at record stores question. What is the event at Field Notes in October and can any pen addict attend? So, what we are doing is a live episode recording, so me and Brad and a couple of the crew from Field Notes on Friday, October 13th. So we're recording that. There is, we have discussed the potential for a meetup to occur after the show, after we finish recording. All of this stuff is still to be determined very soon. There may be the potential for a very small audience for the show, but we need to work that out. But there is going to be a small event afterwards that people will definitely be able to attend if you're in town. So, all of the details are still to come on this one in that we have not yet worked it all out. So, that's all coming, but it will be occurring, whatever it is, will be occurring on October 13th.

Brad Dowdy: Yeah. And so, just to kind of say what Myke said, the way it's shaping up to be is a limited audience, for the live recording, and then open to everyone meetup afterwards. That's kind of how this is shaping out, but we don't have it finalized yet. So, anyone who wants to come should be able to come to the meetup, and then we'll just kind of go from there. So, we'll have the details soon because it's getting close, we need to finalize it. So, yeah, I'm pretty excited about this. We've talked about some really cool things that we can do for this, so I hope it all comes through. So, that's the plan. All right, last one, and before we get to it, I'd like to say congratulations to Michael Hagen of Ledfast, who submitted this question. He just had his one-year anniversary on his blog, so you should go to Ledfast.org, subscribe to his blog, read everything he does. Met him in Chicago this year, great guy, and does a great job on Ledfast, and he just put some new pretty sweet stickers up for sale. So, his question is, when it comes to notebooks, what are the top three traits you look for? Let's say a five-ish size. So, I think that's the best size for notebooks and the most variety in notebooks. Number one, I want paper quality. It has to be good primarily for fountain pens and then good enough for other things. So, there are cases where a paper is perfect for fountain pens, say like a Rhodia or a Tomoe, but they're not wonderful for things like pencil or gel or rollerball. I want it to be really good for fountain pens and mostly good for everything else. So, you know, I tend to find things like the Japanese brands do that the best. Morimans, Midoris, things like that. Secondly, I'll look for construction. So, I don't have a preferred construction style. It can be side bound, staple bound, spiral bound, perfect bound, but it has to be done well. Whatever that construction is has to be strong and solid. And then the third thing I look for is the pattern on the page. Preferably some type of grid or dot grid. grid. You know, that's kind of the first thing you think about looking at, but I really need those other things to be the primary focus before I get to that. Now, if it only comes in blank and lined, that's probably going to prevent me from buying it. So, maybe the pattern should be number one, but if it has a pattern like a grid or a dot and it's bad paper and bad construction, I'm not going to buy that either. So, I need paper quality first and it has to fit this middle ground that I like. Right now, the Apica Premium CD notebook in A5 is still probably the best notebook I've ever used. It handles everything you can throw at it perfectly. Next, I want it to be built well and this notebook is. And then third, I care what pattern's on the page. So, there you go.

Brad Dowdy: Do you have any preferences? What would you say is your most important thing?

Myke Hurley: I think the pattern on the page is really important to me because irrespective of what the paper's like, if it's lined, I'm not going to want to use it. If it's planed, I'm going to struggle with it. I like a grid, I love a dot grid, I love a reticle grid most of all.

Myke Hurley: Then, so my next two things are paper quality and design. And I really, honestly, I struggle to decide where I put those two because not achieving a minimum acceptable level in either of those will turn me off irrespective of each other. Do you know what I mean? Right? Like, if it looks terrible but the paper's good, I don't want it. If it looks amazing and the paper's terrible, I just don't want it. Right? Like, there has to be a minimum level of each. So, I would say that those three things are my most important thing. So, an overall design, an aesthetic that appeals to me, and a paper quality that works the way that I want it to with the majority of things that I own. But I can't really rank those last two very well because they are kind of mutually exclusive of each other. Yep. Yep.

Brad Dowdy: I'm with you. So, yeah, I love that question because we are all into our very, very specific little tiny things that are important to us. Yep. Right? So, these, like, the three traits of a notebook are very important to each and every one of us and they're all different. So, it's interesting to hear how people categorize what they're looking for. So, it's, paper is still, to this day, a not enough talked about topic because it's a challenge. Like, it's a challenge to do right. So, I love finding a good notebook. I love making a good notebook, too.

Myke Hurley: Yeah, you sure do. You do. You make very good notebooks. Where can people find those notebooks? They can go to knock.co and they can get them. If you want to see Brad writing about notebooks, that sometimes happens over at penedict.com. Brad is on Twitter. He is at dowdyism. And also on Instagram, he is penaddict. I am imike, I-M-Y-K-E and all the social places. If you want to find this show, you can go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 270. For two reasons this week. There's a ton of links. I have loads of links today. Lots and lots and lots. And also, you get to preview and take a look at our lovely new design that we've got over at relay.fm, which I think you should go check it out because I think it looks really good. There are still some tweaks and there are still some bugs and we're fixing them. But if you come across anything, please feel free to let me know. It's very helpful. If you want to find our sponsors this week, go check them out. They're also on that page. Penn Chalet, Blue Apron and Harry's. You can get all the links there to go and check those out and support the show. But you can also support the show by becoming a relay.fm member at relay.fm slash membership. We really, really, really, really, really, really appreciate that if you do. But if you can't, it's also OK. The show continues to go on as normal and you can continue to get us. But if you're in a position to be able to support the show, then you get some cool bonuses as well. Thanks to Brad for being here as always. Thanks you all for listening. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.